Annie’s Adventures | Summer ’20 Update

On By Annie @ Blossoms and Bullet JournalsIn Other, Recaps

A butterfly on a window, with an overlaid text banner reading 'Summer '20 Update'

Hey everyone! It’s been a little while since I’ve posted one of these recaps, so I figured I’d update you all on what I’ve been doing this summer: life, reading, etc. Hope you all are doing well!

Affiliate Disclosure ✨
This post contains affiliate links for Amazon, Bookshop.org, and Paper House, meaning that I will earn a commission if you click through and end up buying something, at no extra cost to you. Thanks so much for your support!

Life

It’s definitely been a strange summer for me, as I’m sure it has been for all of you as well. I’m trying not to complain too much, because I know I’m so so lucky to be safe and healthy right now, but it’s definitely been hard to feel positive. Some good things have happened though!

Here’s what I’ve been doing:

  • I took two AP exams (chemistry and English lit) in May, which was very not fun, but it did feel really good to be done with them after I finished.
  • We’re not in lockdown anymore where I live, and of course my family’s still being really careful and staying home much more than we normally would over the summer, but I have been able to have some in-person interactions—I’ve started babysitting again, we’ve visited our grandparents a few, and I’ve been able to hang out outdoors with 1-2 friends at a time (it’s definitely been a weird adjustment not being able to hug/touch any of them).
  • I’ve been trying to focus as much energy as possible on antiracism. I’ve been to a bunch of BLM protests, and I’m so glad my family is healthy enough that we’ve had the opportunity to go to them. Regardless of whether you’re able to participate in person, there’s still so much more work to be done, and I’ll leave a bunch of resources here:
Click for BLM resources
Credit to May for putting this list together!

petitions
numbers/emails
videos to stream (ad revenue will be donated)
George Floyd gofundme
Gianna Floyd (his daughter) gofundme
Breonna Taylor gofundme
Ahmaud Arbery gofundme
Elijah McClain gofundme
bail funds, research local ones near you too
organizations
small Black businesses that were destroyed
Black-owned businesses
indie Black-owned bookstores
tips on overall protest safety
google doc masterlist of BLM resources
  • Recently (as in, a few days ago), I also started volunteering with an organization called Poll Hero that’s recruiting young people to work the polls this November since the pandemic has caused a poll worker shortage. (If you or someone you know wants to sign up to be a poll worker, click here! And even if you can’t, we’d really appreciate if you could spread the word on your social media (here’s our Instagram and Twitter), since having enough poll workers is so crucial for preventing voter suppression and having a fair election.
  • The college process 😅 Things have been very weird but I’m doing my best. Although of course real college visits aren’t happening, my parents and I have walked around a few nearby campuses just to get a feel of what things are like there (though it’s a little different without any actual people, lol), and I’ve attended what feels like a million virtual information sessions.

In related news, I made a blank template version of the spreadsheet I’ve been using to organize my college research in case anyone else is in the same boat as me! Idk if anyone will even open it, but I figured I’d share it because it feels like some that has the potential to be useful—click here to view the spreadsheet and make your own copy.

  • I did a week-long Zoom art class in July, which was really fun!
  • I’ve also been taking this really cool, totally free and open-to-anyone African-American History course that Yale has on their website—here’s the link in case any of you are interested.
  • My school has released its reopening plan for the fall, and I am…not particularly happy about it. We’re doing a hybrid model with half in-person and half online instruction, and as much as I dislike Zoom school, the safety precautions currently in place have some significant flaws, in my opinion, which of course makes me nervous. My school’s giving us the option to stay home full-time, so my family and I may decide to do that.

Books

Favorite Books I’ve Read Recently:

A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi book cover In the Role of Brie Hutchens... by Nicole Melleby book cover Bewteen the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates book cover Love, Creekwood by Becky Albertalli book cover The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed book cover

Book covers are from Goodreads and link to the books’ respective Goodreads pages.

A Very Large Expanse of Sea | Tahereh Mafi | ★★★★.5 | Bookshop.org | Amazon | My first Tahereh Mafi book and it did not disapoint!! Shirin + Ocean are my new otp.

In the Role of Brie Hutchens… | Nicole Melleby | ★★★★.5 | Bookshop.org | Amazon | Read my review here!

Between the World and Me | Ta-Nehisi Coates | ★★★★★ | Bookshop.org | Amazon | A work of genius. Read my review here.

Love, Creekwood | Becky Albertalli | ★★★★★ | Bookshop.org | Amazon | This novella stole my heart. Read my (very short) review here.

The Black Kids | Christina Hammonds Reed | ★★★★★ | Bookshop.org | Amazon | A new favorite. Read my review here.

Blogging

I’m pretty proud of myself for how consistently I’ve been blogging recently. I’ve also been working on some improvements for my blog design and navigation, so be on the lookout for a little blog refresh type thing.

In that vein, I have a small bit of news/self-promo, which is that I’ve begun using affiliate links! If you’re looking to support a blogger, this is a great way to do it, since you can order things you might have bought anyway, but when you use my links, I get a small commission. It would really mean a lot to me 🙂

I have affiliate links for Bookshop.org (which also supports indie bookstores!), Amazon, and Paper House (a really cute stationery company)—I’ll leave some links here:

Okay, now back to the regularly scheduled programming!

Some Blog Posts From This Summer (So Far):

📖 Book Reviews

📚 Other Bookish Posts

✒️ Bullet Journal

Favorite Posts from the Blogosphere:

Just a few of my favorite posts I’ve read recently.

Discussions

Tags

  • Ilsa @ A Whisper of Ink created a folklore book tag!! I’m so excited to write my post. (I am in love with the album, btw.)

Tutorials

Miscellaneous

Let's Chat

Thank you so much for reading! I hope you have a wonderful rest of your summer (or winter, depending on which hemisphere you’re in).

♥ Annie

A butterfly on a window, with text that reads 'Summer '20 Update'

14 thoughts on “Annie’s Adventures | Summer ’20 Update”

  1. Pingback: Annie’s Adventures | Autumn ’20 Update – Blossoms & Bullet Journals

  2. Ahh, first of all I’m so late to this post and I’m very sorry about that- but I’m glad you had a great summer!❤️ If you’ve gone back to school (whether online or in person), I hope it’s going well now. Thank you so much for sharing this spreadsheet- it’s super helpful and reading this also made me want to be more proactive with college apps, haha. Also…yay for being done with the online AP exams, and here’s to hoping we never have to do that again, lol.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  3. Vicky Again

    eep! thank you for the mention. omg GOOD LUCK with the college search. it’s definitely difficult to parse through them. I’d definitely recommend maybe seeing if you can get a copy of Fiske’s guide to colleges from your library (or buying) if you want to look through a lot of them and get important info quickly. (US news is kind of yucky, ngl). I’d also be happy to answer questions (not that I know much. I only applied to two places hahahah) (I’m at a small lib arts college in PA if that’s your vibe.)

    and I’m so glad you liked AVLEOS! that was a favorite when I read it too 🙂

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    1. Ah of course Vicky, thank you so much!! Ooh that’s really helpful, I will definitely look into that, and I’ll let you know if I have questions, those types of schools are definitely on my list. I actually live in PA so I’ve been able to ~sort of~ visit a few liberal arts colleges nearby just by like walking around their campuses and stuff which has been really nice, they all seem really lovely!

      Thank you so much Vicky and ahh yes AVLEOS is so good!!

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  4. Thank you so, so much for sharing my post, Annie, so happy you enjoyed it! 🥺🥺 I wish you all the very best for the whole college process and wow, that spreadsheet, I admire your organization SO much right now ahah, that’s amazing. ❤
    I hope you’ll be able to stay home and safe, I’m sending you all the love ❤

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  5. CG @ Paper Fury

    I’m glad you’re well and safe!! Definitely understand the stress of figuring out how you’re approaching school soon 😭 I hope it goes okay. And thanks so much for sharing my post 🥺💛

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  6. It’s definitely been a strange summer. I’m glad you’ve been able to have small gatherings again! (looks dramatically off through the window in longing) so many schools reopening plans seem so sketchy (that picture of the crowded hs in Georgia that was on the news last week… why) I hope you’re able to figure out what you’re going to do and feel safe. congrats on using affiliate links! hope you have a great end of summer and back to school ❤

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Yeah everything is so weird rn. I hope the numbers and guidelines and stuff improve for you soon ❤️ And ugh I swear, that picture from Georgia is gonna end up in textbooks…if anything like that happens at my school (which I highly doubt) I will bolt

      Thanks so much for your kind comment Kay! I hope you have a great end of summer/beginning of fall as well 🙂

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